Empire of the Tsars : Romanov Russia

[TimM]

Sounds interesting.  I've never heard of Lucy Worsley though.

[Maria Sisi]

I saw it on youtube yesterday (channel appropriately named TSARS) and it was okay. It was pretty much a fluff piece, not very heavy on dates and information. It was more cultural related then hard history events. I suppose you could call it cliff notes or something like that. Something that could be used in school for young students (12 under) as an introduction to Russian history. Visually it was beautiful. 

On a shallow note Lucy is very easy on the eyes and ears. She gives off very warm and friendly vibes.

[Lochlanach]

I saw it on youtube yesterday (channel appropriately named TSARS) and it was okay. It was pretty much a fluff piece, not very heavy on dates and information. It was more cultural related then hard history events. I suppose you could call it cliff notes or something like that. Something that could be used in school for young students (12 under) as an introduction to Russian history. Visually it was beautiful. 

On a shallow note Lucy is very easy on the eyes and ears. She gives off very warm and friendly vibes.

Yeah , very fluffy . She is good at the cultural - travelogue stuff , but is incapable of moving or electrifying her audience as the best historians do. Lets see how she handles the events of the Revolution . I just hope she doesn't dress up as a Cossack or as Lenin or whatever...but she probably will.

[Maria Sisi]

I saw it on youtube yesterday (channel appropriately named TSARS) and it was okay. It was pretty much a fluff piece, not very heavy on dates and information. It was more cultural related then hard history events. I suppose you could call it cliff notes or something like that. Something that could be used in school for young students (12 under) as an introduction to Russian history. Visually it was beautiful. 

On a shallow note Lucy is very easy on the eyes and ears. She gives off very warm and friendly vibes.

Yeah , very fluffy . She is good at the cultural - travelogue stuff , but is incapable of moving or electrifying her audience as the best historians do. Lets see how she handles the events of the Revolution . I just hope she doesn't dress up as a Cossack or as Lenin or whatever...but she probably will.

Then the next episode, which focuses on Catherine, should be great. It's clear from the preview there will be a lot of talk about her building mania and the vast art collection she obsessively gathered.

Not sure if its true or not but I read once in a book that at one auction in London Catherine had purchased so many paintings by a big name artist (I sadly can't remember who) that the government changed laws because they couldn't understand how so many pieces of work by that big an artist could be purchased by the Russians.

[mcdnab]

She first came to tv prominence because she was curator of historic royal palaces and was responsible for the massive refurbishment of the royal apartments at Kensington Palace.
Numerous tv shows followed - she is currently one of a handful of presenters that are the go to for this kind of series for a reason - she is entertaining and informative without being over technical - in other words the programmes are easy to watch if you have very little or no knowledge. They are designed for those kind of people. The stuff on the early Romanov's perhaps skirted the subject but for most Western viewers the real interest is Peter, Catherine and the end of the dynasty - and I thought the Peter stuff was rather well done - the beard pulling was an easy way to illustrate the europeanisation Peter wanted.

I watched the first one and enjoyed it but it is clearly intended as an introduction to the subject - will be more interested in the Catherine the Great one which to be fair probably will offer more given the mass of surviving buildings and art from her reign.
On the german issue - to be honest the Romanov's themselves were rather reluctant to have their germanness emphasised - didn't the Gotha go to the Alexander Palace every year for corrections with the dynasty styled correctly as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov and was returned with the Holstein-Gottorp crossed out only to be reinserted by the Gotha.

[Lochlanach]

She first came to tv prominence because she was curator of historic royal palaces and was responsible for the massive refurbishment of the royal apartments at Kensington Palace.
Numerous tv shows followed - she is currently one of a handful of presenters that are the go to for this kind of series for a reason - she is entertaining and informative without being over technical - in other words the programmes are easy to watch if you have very little or no knowledge. They are designed for those kind of people. The stuff on the early Romanov's perhaps skirted the subject but for most Western viewers the real interest is Peter, Catherine and the end of the dynasty - and I thought the Peter stuff was rather well done - the beard pulling was an easy way to illustrate the europeanisation Peter wanted.

I watched the first one and enjoyed it but it is clearly intended as an introduction to the subject - will be more interested in the Catherine the Great one which to be fair probably will offer more given the mass of surviving buildings and art from her reign.
On the german issue - to be honest the Romanov's themselves were rather reluctant to have their germanness emphasised - didn't the Gotha go to the Alexander Palace every year for corrections with the dynasty styled correctly as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov and was returned with the Holstein-Gottorp crossed out only to be reinserted by the Gotha.

On the German issue ... well yes that is correct , and similarly, my own royal family will soon become the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg when Charles succeeds to the throne,  but this is unlikely to be shouted from the rooftops by the family or the UK media . An interesting fact -  when Charles' son William succeeds him , William will be Britains least German, and most British, monarch since Queen Anne (d.1715) , although he still has about 1/3 German ancestry ; and unless his son George weds a German girl (unlikely) then within a couple more generations German 'blood' will likely be bred out of the British ruling house . The Romanovs of course did the exact opposite , breeding out its Russian blood in favour of German.

As for the show , it is passable, and I will watch the final show with interest, but it is largely superflous and instantly forgettable. The BBC series from a couple of years ago on OTMA is a masterpiece by comparison . Consider it is on BBC4 - home of  'the Arts' on the BBC - yet is nothing more than fluffy popular history done by a 'personality' historian . Disappointing but not unexpected.

[Lochlanach]

Alas, the final episode was as unsatisfying as the previous two . Unengaging , anaemic  , poorly researched , cheaply made rubbish . Worsleys account of the Ipatiev House killings was woefully lazy , superficial and inaccurate ( a 'little dog' accompanied the IF into the basement and came out alive, didn't you know ? ) ;  and delivered without passion (standard for Worsley) or understanding (mysterious , untraceable Soviet 'bureaucrats' made the decision to kill Nicholas , didn't you know? ) . Please don't waste your time watching this series . It is compulsive non-viewing and it's three hours of your life you will never get back.

[edubs31]

Alas, the final episode was as unsatisfying as the previous two . Unengaging , anaemic  , poorly researched , cheaply made rubbish . Worsleys account of the Ipatiev House killings was woefully lazy , superficial and inaccurate ( a 'little dog' accompanied the IF into the basement and came out alive, didn't you know ? ) ;  and delivered without passion (standard for Worsley) or understanding (mysterious , untraceable Soviet 'bureaucrats' made the decision to kill Nicholas , didn't you know? ) . Please don't waste your time watching this series . It is compulsive non-viewing and it's three hours of your life you will never get back.

lol, maybe a tad harsh...

I just finished watching it on YouTube. As a presenter Lucy encourages more than a few eye-rolls, but as a personality I find her quite watchable and rather infectious. I really wasn't expecting some epic documentary or anything as thorough and sober as the eight-part "The Romanovs: History of the Russian Dynasty" (see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USUA_1WVM8I).

If anything that terrific aforementioned eight-parter proves that any sort of documentary on the full reign of the Romanovs is impossible to do in a three-part series. Given that, I think this is an entertaining CliffsNotes version. Naturally designed more for the novice viewer rather than those who frequent this forum, but not without its merits.

I didn't learn any new consequential facts, although a couple of new interesting perspectives were introduced. Couple things I did like though...1) It didn't bog itself down in those sometimes cheesy reenactment sequences. It let the stories and the photos/videos/paintings/monuments speak for themselves. 2) It was visually stunning at times. A virtual tour of Russia (mostly St. Petersburg, Moscow and Pushkin of course) highlighting the palaces & parks, monuments & paintings in all of their regal splendor.

I enjoyed it. And if this is how the casual viewer is brought to the topic why is that so bad? Some of the wisest young generation fans on this board came to the AP through that silly and horribly inaccurate 1997 animated film. Lucy Worsley sounds like Ken Burns by comparison.